Day 2 of the trial between the City of Seattle and the Sonics over terms of the KeyArena lease focused mainly on the testimony of Sonics chairman Clay Bennett.

For most of the day in court Bennett answered questions from the city's lead attorney, Paul Lawrence, and Sonics attorney Brad Keller. And, of course, Lawrence asked Bennett to address those infamous emails that surfaced a couple months ago during the discovery process of the case.

Bennett maintained in his testimony that when he said he was "A man possessed ..." in an email to fellow owner Tom Ward that he was referring to the fact that he was even more energized to seek a solution to the arena issue in Seattle.

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However, Lawrence used a series of emails to show that Bennett may have had other intentions, including an email to Joel Litvin, the NBA's vice president of operations, explaining why Oklahoma City would be a good place for the NBA.

Lawrence continued to hammer home the city's main argument -- that Bennett's ownership group knew what they signed up for, understood the dreary financial projections of the team and the fact they had signed a contract that included a lease that said the team would play all their games at KeyArena until 2010.

“The main point with Mr. Bennett is that he is a businessman who understands contracts and knows that when he signs a contract and agrees to abide by those terms, that he should abide by those terms and live with them, rather than trying to breach a year later.”

Listen to the full interview with Lawrence here.

In his examination of Bennett, Keller focused on all the work Bennett and his group put in to try and get a $500 million proposed arena in Renton done. Attorneys for the Sonics argue that leg work shows Bennett made a good-faith effort to secure a arena in the Seattle area.

However, attorneys for the city argued that Bennett knew lawmakers in Olympia would not support the project, particularly because the team had not committed a specific dollar amount to the project, even though Bennett countered the team said it would put up $100 million.

“The evidence suggests he proposed a gold-plated deal," Lawrence said. "If I get a $500 million arena while I only have to put up a negligible or nominal amount of money, that’s a pretty good deal.”

Bennett was composed and articulate on the stand, intelligently explaining the team's effort to secure a facility in Renton, and stating the group never considered a proposal to remodel KeyArena because it could never generate enough revenue to make a profit in the new NBA economic model.

Describing a short meeting with Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels and deputy mayor Tim Ceis, Bennett said: "Mr. Ceis did indicate it (KeyArena) was the finest basketball arena in the country, so I knew we were off track a little bit."

The day ended with a thud for the city. Andrew Zimbalist, one of the nation’s premier sports economic analysts who teaches at Smith College, testified for the city on the intangible benefits of having an NBA franchise in Seattle.

However, attorneys for the Sonics tried to discredit Zimbalist’s testimony by showing several excerpts from a report Zimbalist an economic impact analysis he completed for the Los Angeles Angels, which contained several passages that were virtually the same to several passages in a similar report done for the city.

In his deposition Zimbalist said his report for the Sonics was done from scratch.
However, Lawrence gave no indication that Zimbalist’s testimony hurt the city’s case.

“Professor Zimbalist is probably the foremost sports economist in the country,” Lawrence said. “That’s why the city hired him, and that’s why PBC (Sonics) tried to hire him as well.”

Zimbalist was moved up because he had to leave town for another commitment on Tuesday. Bennett will take the stand again on Wednesday. Also expected to take the stand is Sonics CEO Danny Barth.